Frontline: Ace of Spades

Ace of Spades is not a new game. It's actually been around for a while now, originally made as a World War I trench-based shooter, it quickly attracted a dedicated community of players. Its pull was so strong that it even grabbed the attention of one Europe's leading online studios, Jagex, who started working with the game's developers a few months ago in order to launch the game last week.

It's come along way since the beta, but some of the changes made by Jagex haven't been warmly received by the game's already established fan base, with players concerned about the shift of direction taken by the studio. Having not played the earlier iteration of the game, I can't (and therefore won't) compare the beta version of AoS with the version now available to download on Steam. I'll leave that to others.

On the face of it everything looks nice and blocky, Minecraft with guns is the inevitable comparison. But scratching (or digging, in this case) under the surface reveals that first impressions are not everything.

Things don't get off to a good start. The wider internet, and the Steam community page for the game, are riddled with grumbles from unhappy gamers. They might not tell the whole story, but already alarm bells are ringing. Getting into the game proper offers you three options; two of these don't work. It's not a great first impression.

Thankfully, things start to pick up after that. Heading into Choose Match (Quick Match and Ranked Match are currently unresponsive buttons) reveals the server list, and there's plenty of games being played on plenty of different servers. There's a selection of game modes (which we'll come to in a minute) and, thanks to DLC that landed on December 20, there's a generous selection of maps.

My first instinct was to jump straight into Team Deathmatch. I was greeted with a voxelated (a new word that I just made up) version of London, complete with Houses of Parliament, London buses, red phone boxes and black cabs. To my right two hard-hat wearing soldiers chipped away at the base of London Bridge, in front of me the Houses of Parliament were exploding into chunks of colour and flame. Basic, yes, but impressive nevertheless. The simple aesthetic carries over into each and every map, but individual distinctiveness keeps things fresh.

Indeed, the visual qualities of Ace of Spades will likely be the main reason people check it out: the fusion of team-based shooting and Minecraft-esque scenery is enticing. Mojang's game has been an unrivaled success since it was originally released, and the massive player base of gamers well versed in the ways of hitting blocks with shovels is surely a market that Jagex are aiming for with AoS.

I'll not mention Minecraft again, because comparisons aren't really relevant. There's no crafting in AoS, and the maps aren't procedurally generated (another sticking point for fans of the beta). Everything is both a) destructible and b) made of blocks, but that's where the similarities end. Ace of Spades is a shooter first and foremost, the voxelated (there, I used it again) environments support the action, inform it, but don't dominate it (unless, of course, you want it to).

All told there's ten maps: Arctic Base, Block Ness, Bran Castle, Castle Wars, Double Dragon, Hiesville, London, Lunar Base, Mayan Jungle and Spooky Mansion. I'll not go into too much detail here as the names are pretty self explanatory. One of the first things to impress is the size of the maps. Looking beyond the blocks, each environment is distinctive from the next, not just in terms of palette, but in the their composition. Some have towering structures, ready to be pulled down by explosives and spades, whilst others are dominated by giant mountains and rolling hills covered in trees.

The blocks around really do impact on tactics. There are four classes, and your choice here dictates to what level you'll interact with your environment. Miners sacrifice range for increased environmental options, they carry shotguns and burrow into the action, creating their very own corridor shooter experience wherever they go. Rocketeers take to the skies and rain machine gun fire down on their enemies, and killing them sends them shooting off into orbit with a satisfying trial of smoke.

The Marksman, normally my preferred class, feels very underpowered. Vague feedback and hit detection makes it tricky to know whether you've connected or not, and a laggy opponent can make things even more frustrating. Commando is a heavier alternative, and comes packing either a minigun or an RPG. The little cigar smoking rocket launching Commando is possibly my favourite class, even if I want to prefer the sniper rifle and the increased speed and jump possessed by the Marksman.

Throughout matches the environment around you changes as blocks are added and taken away. Snipers burrow into little concealed nests and take shots from afar, heavies engage jet-packing assault troops in open combat, and miners dig down into the ground and lay traps, inviting trouble to follow them down into the depths. The differences in the four classes keep the battles varied, with different people playing the same game in different ways all around you. While some choose to simply fight it out, using the flexibility of the environment when the opportunity presents itself, others use the landscape around them and try to shape it to their advantage. It's not a gameplay revolution, but it is a nice mix of different genres, and it allows for a level of creativity on the battlefield that few games can match.

There's several different modes to try out, and some of them suit AoS better than others. Team Deathmatch - a FPS staple - is present, but it's the other modes like Zombie and Diamond Mine that really stand out. Capture the Flag is a straight forward asset grab, Demolition tasks you with blowing up your opponents base. Diamond Mine sends teams down into the earth in search of diamonds to be deposited in drop off points, and Multi-Hill has teams chasing moving capture points. Perhaps the best mode is Zombie, with infected players able to chomp through huge amounts of blocks as they hunt down remaining survivors. Blasting away at the undead with a shotgun is great fun, and once infected, hunting down the last few humans ensures some frantic chase scenes.

Ace of Spades is already enjoyable, and there's plenty of places that Jagex can take it in the future. I think it likely that many of the issues angry beta fans are complaining about will be resolved over time, and for those who remain unpacified, the original version of the game is still available to play, for free. For interested gamers that take the plunge with no preconceptions, a good time likely awaits. It's not without its issues - lag can be a problem, as is the lack of feedback when it comes to hit detection - but they're not game breakers.

If you like the look of Ace of Spades, the relatively low price point and nice mix of gameplay elements makes it a low risk venture. That's not a whole hearted recommendation - yet - but maybe I'll change my tune when Jagex throw in the map editor that this game is crying out for.